Reason #3948 for why I hate carpet

I really, really hate carpet. It's a pain in the neck to keep clean, especially this off-white carpet that adorns half my house. With moving in trauma to the carpet, the frequent cat throw up, regular child messes and Andy's recent bout of nose bleeds, it's time to get it cleaned. I haven't done this in ages so I started asking for quotes. So far, the lowest has been about $400 to clean just half the bedrooms, family rooms and hallway. And that's before I added on cleaning the back staircase at $2 a step. This is a necessity due Andy's nosebleed the other night where he left a trail of blood from his room, down the hallway, down the back stairs and into our room. I swear we don't beat him. Much, anyway.

At these rates, I might have to suck it up and rent one of those carpet cleaners for $50 from the grocery store. I haven't tried to use one since circa 1995 when I moved out of my apartment in Alexandria, Va., and headed for life in the big city of Washington, D.C. My apartment there in Woodley Park had ancient hardwood floors. Sure, I could get a splinter going to the bathroom, but at least I didn't have to vacuum.

So has anyone tried getting one of those do-it-yourself carpet cleaners of late? Am I better off sucking it up and hiring someone at that price? Bjorn's Blackberry is about to implode so we've been thinking of getting him an iPhone, partially so he can follow the NCAA tournament on his phone and stop using mine. Which is better? Bjorn + iPhone and us cleaning ourselves or hiring professionals and no iPhone?

Seriously?

It's barely September and the fall/winter illnesses are swirling through my house like it's Halloween and we've got the good candy. Last week, I got home from an event Thursday night feeling a little feverish and weird so I took two Benadryl and went to bed. Then in the morning my throat hurt a little, but by rotating Tylenol and Advil all day, I felt okay. By yesterday morning, my lymph nodes hurt like they did last year when I had strep. So I was smart, called my GP and had him call in a prescription for antibiotics. Let's hope that does the trick.

Andy had his first gymnastics class yesterday. There are two little girls in the class and they spent time jumping on the trampoline, jumping on the springboard, walking on the balance beam and doing a mini-Ninja Warrior course. It was all quite cute. He even got TWO hand stamps on the way out. He was rather pumped about that.

Not cute was the fever he spiked around lunch time. He simply fell asleep on the sofa around 12:30, unheard of for him to do that really. Bjorn carried him upstairs and Andy napped for a couple of hours. He woke up groggy and I think the only reason he did was he peed through his Pull-up and he was wet. All afternoon he just wasn't quite himself. Around 8ish, we negotiated how many more minutes he wanted to play. His answer "One hundred!" My answer, "Five." We settled on 10, but about two minutes in, he said he was tired so I took him up to bed. Also unheard of.

Meg has been a little warm off and on all weekend although Bjorn and I disagree on what constitutes warm and he's always telling me after the fact that he gave her a little Tylenol. I definitely think her teeth are coming in although I still don't feel anything.

Meanwhile, I'm pissed about this whole series of illnesses. I have really been trying hard -- I've been wiping toys and counters down with antibacterial wipes, toys are going in the dishwasher 100 percent more (i.e. I didn't do it at all before), I'm making a real effort to make sure I wash my hands every time I could some close to handling a bottle, food, a diaper or helping Andy in the bathroom. I'm also really working with Andy making sure he washes his hands more often. So explain to me why despite all this, everyone is still sick? I feel sort of like George Costanza - do I need to do the opposite of what I think is right and then everything will be fine? Any of you parenting veterans have any advice?

Oh, and to top off the weirdness of the weekend, we got 9 inches of rain in Fairfax yesterday as Tropical Storm Hanna blew threw the area, closing a number of the roads near us with low-lying creeks. I took some pictures of the creek near us. It was pretty cool.

Christmas after

I'm still sorting through everything. Take a look at this picture and you'll see there is a lot to get through. I'm still missing my new running shoes that I wore on Christmas morning. Certainly no one else wants them so they're clearly stuck under something in this house. I suppose that means I need to clean. With both of us just trying to get through the day all week, the house is a total mess - even more so than a regular Christmas. It's all good though. Hard to believe the long holiday week is almost over though and we have to go back to work on Tuesday. Sigh.

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Updated to add that I found my new shoes. They were under Bjorn's side of the bed, where I kicked them off while hanging my awesome new curtains that match my new duvet cover. Phew. The mystery of the missing shoes was really getting to me. Now if I could just find those wooden letters.